


The real you

by BloodthirstyMerc



Category: DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Fandom for Australia Fanworks Auction, Gen, Gore, Graphic Description, Healing, Hurt, Injury, Injury Recovery, Major Character Injury, References to Drugs, Stabbing, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:21:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27485692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodthirstyMerc/pseuds/BloodthirstyMerc
Summary: “Sorry, I’ll pay for everything,” Tim offers, his voice croaky and weak, but there. Jason waves him off and drops the bags on the table in front of Tim.“Don’t worry about it, you almost died, you don’t owe me anything.”“I owe you my life, Jay,”{{Fandom For Oz fic}}
Relationships: Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 3
Kudos: 131
Collections: Fandom For Australia, Tim Drake and Red Robin Stories





	The real you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fancy_Dragonqueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fancy_Dragonqueen/gifts).



Tim coughs, following it up with a hiss as his fingers dig into his side. He knows that he should call for help because he’s bleeding a lot and he can’t keep enough pressure where he needs to. But he wasn’t meant to be out here tonight, and he wasn’t meant to get involved with these drug dealers. He knows why now, they were fucking insane. And Tim’s dealt with a lot of insane, but this was… on a different level. Drug dealers usually have weapons when they’re doing a drop, for exactly the reason they had to use them tonight when Tim showed up. But he wasn’t expecting them to be so wild that most of them killed each other before Tim could take them down. He’s never seen anything like it.

Which is why he was so thrown off when he got stabbed. In the fucking ribs, and he’s lucky the guy wasn’t able to get the knife between them and pierce his lung, otherwise, he’d be dead. But he felt the metal _grind_ , fucking heard it as it moved along one of his ribs. Just thinking about it makes him grit his teeth and feel like he’s going to throw up.

He’s trying his hardest to keep pressure on the wound, but it’s at an awkward angle, and he’s weak from it. He knows that he’s leaving a nice trail of blood behind him too, but he doesn’t care. The cops won’t find him, because he made sure he didn’t leave any trail at the scene once he took them all out. It’s just that the closest safe house from the drop point was a decent travel distance, especially with him bleeding out.

And it’s not his safe house either, and he’s not in his territory anymore, but he can’t call Bruce or Dick. He doesn’t want them to know he got involved and now… this. So, he drags himself to the only other place he might be safe. Drags himself into the back alley and stares up the fire escape at the back of the building. Six floors, including ground level. He whimpers just at the thought and hopes to god he’s right about it as he hauls himself up onto the metal ladder.

It takes far too long to get up them, and he’s going to have to clean up so much blood once he’s able to stand up straight again, but he makes it. As is expected, the lights are out, and the curtain is closed. And the locks aren’t something he can work right now with his head this foggy, and it won’t matter because he wants to set off the alarms anyway. Tim sits himself at the window, chokes a little more on his blood and pulls up as much strength as he can manage. He grits his teeth as he locks his hands together, reels back and slams his elbow into the window.

It shatters, and Tim’s body follows the movement, sending him falling into the room. He coughs and chokes when he lands on the glass, luckily none of it stabbing him in the face, and his gloves keep his hands protected as he drags himself to his feet. The alarm would have been triggered instantly, and he mentally apologises for the shattered window and his blood in the carpet. He drags himself over to the bathroom and flicks the light on, leaving the door open as he collapses to the floor.

His bloody hands struggle to pull the cabinet doors open under the sink and he’s so fucking relieved that there’s a first aid kit there. He leans his back against the wall, gasping and panting as he fights to get it open and starts looking through the contents. He finds a few closed up needles and tries to get his eyes to focus on them to see what they are. He needs a shot of adrenaline, to keep his heart pumping right now. He knows it’s dangerous since he hasn’t been able to slow the bleeding, but he estimates he’ll only have to wait a few minutes. He should be fine.

He finds one, and only one and he’s cataloguing a list of all the things he’ll need to do when this is over; clean up the blood, save the carpet, clean up and replace the window, clean up the bathroom, refill the medkit, pay for the inconvenience. A couple hundred should be enough, hell he’ll give a grand if he has to.

Tim bites into the cap, and he would never do this in normal circumstances, but he has to keep his other hand on his side as best he can. The seal snaps off and he spits the plastic across the floor, turns the needle and drives it into his thigh without a second thought. He grunts and injects the adrenaline into his system.

His fingers are shaking, and he has to try to ignore it as he pulls the needle from his leg and drops it to the floor at his side. He brings that hand up to his side too, pressing his hand against the wound as he tries to keep his breathing slow and steady. His head tips back against the wall and he swallows thickly, still feeling that twist in his gut from the feeling of the knife against his bone. He just had to keep breathing, and hope the adrenaline helped to keep his heart pumping more than putting himself into a worse situation.

\- - -

Jason was five minutes from his safe house when he got the alert. Someone had set off an alarm, and no attempt was made to stop it, so he knew that it wasn’t someone who knew how to turn it off or even knew about it. They wouldn’t have a clue he knew, but the fact that it didn’t cut off, the fact that it was even triggered in the first place made Jason believe that it wasn’t someone he _wanted_ in his place.

So, he’s quick to make his way back. Five minutes out, but it took him three to get back. No one’s going to catch him for speeding, and if they do… well he knows how to deal with people. He goes through the front, rushing up the stairs to his floor. He pauses outside of the door, holding his breath as he listens. Nothing. He unlocks the door as quietly as he can, deactivates the alarms and steps inside. The window across from the door is shattered, and there’s blood all over his floor.

Quietly, he closes the door behind him and draws his pistol. He steps forward, catches the light coming from the bathroom door and moves toward it. He hears low wheezing, rough breathing and grits his teeth. He moves into the doorway, his finger twitching on the trigger.

Tim’s head turns slowly, and he glances up at Jason. Jason’s muscles tense up as he digests the sight in front of him. Tim’s mouth opens, and his throat croaks before he coughs. The noise kicks Jason into gear. Because there’s blood running along his floor, and Tim looks half dead and… he might hate the kid but he doesn’t want him to fucking die in his bathroom.

Holstering his gun, Jason strides into the room and pulls off his hood, dropping it into his bathtub as Tim finds his voice. “What took you so long?” He mumbles, voice weak and unlike Jason’s ever heard it. He crouches over Tim’s body and pulls his hands away from Tim’s side. There’s too much blood and he’s still in his suit, he can’t properly see the wound.

“What happened?”

“Drug bust, got stabbed. Hit the bone, didn’t puncture anything. Can’t stop the bleeding.” Tim manages to get out, his chest rising and falling far too fast. His hand twitches at his side and slides along the floor and Jason looks to the movement, spotting the needle. “Needed to keep my heart going,”

“Why did you come here? Why didn’t you call anyone?” Jason hisses, reaching up to peel Tim’s mask from his face. His eyes are cloudy, visibly unfocused and Jason’s gut twists. Tim takes in a deep breath, groaning in pain.

“I’ll… later,” Tim murmurs. Which is fair enough.

Jason takes in a breath and goes for the fastening of Tim’s suit, getting the top half loosened so that he can pull it off. Tim tries not to make too many pained noises as he does all that he can to help the process. Once it’s off, Jason can see the wound a little better, even though there’s still so much blood. He rests his hand against Tim’s side, framing the wound as he looks at it.

“Definitely hit bone?” He clarifies and Tim makes a pathetic noise and nods. Jason grabs the first aid kit at his feet and starts pulling things out to start cleaning up the wound so he can patch it up.

“What blood type are you? If you say O, I’m going to throw you back out that window.” Jason murmurs and Tim scoffs. It causes him to cough again, and Jason rests his hand against his chest. “Easy, keep breathing.”

“B,” Tim croaks out and Jason lets out a low breath of relief.

“Your fucking lucky day then.”

“Knew you were too,”

“Of course, you did, is that why you came here? To drain me?”

“Couldn’t go to anyone else.” And the way that Tim says it gives Jason pause, with his hand against Tim’s wound. He looks up at him and he can see the regret in Tim’s eyes. He knows that Jason could have chosen not to help him, knows that Jason could have told Bruce to come pick him up and held him at the curb until he did. He knows that Jason could have told him to _leave_ and forced him to or left him to bleed out.

But he trusted him, took that risk that Jason would want to help him even though he’s been at Tim’s throat since he came back from the dead. Jason clicks his tongue and lets out a deep sigh, going back to his work. “That’s really fucking sad.”

“Yeah,” Tim coughs again, his eyes falling closed. He was putting far too much trust in Jason.

“Just don’t pass out on me, okay?”

“Can’t make any promises.” Tim almost gurgles, and the sound sends a shock of fear through Jason’s system. He reaches up and presses his fingers to the underside of Tim’s jaw. He swallows from the pressure and doesn’t choke from it. Good.

Jason pulls his hand away again and goes back to stitching Tim up. “Try,” He urges and Tim groans. But he starts moving his fingers, tapping patterns into the floor, which is enough for Jason.

\- - -

Tim wakes up feeling heavy. He can barely lift his head, and when he does, the whole world seems to be unfocused. His eyes ache, his whole head does, but his side doesn’t. He knows that it’s probably morphine in his system, something he knew Jason would have.

When he finally does manage to lift his head enough and get his eyes to focus on the room around him, Tim finds himself to be laying on Jason’s couch. He looks down his side. He’s in fresh, clean clothes that are far too big for him, but pretty damn comfortable. The shirt is thick and warm, as are the pants. His arms are bare though, and with the bandages on the insides of his elbows, he can guess why.

As he slowly sits up, the room spins for a moment, and he groans. He stares at the floor for a while until he’s able to slowly lift his gaze. On the coffee table in front of him is a glass filled with water and a plate with bread on it. And placed atop the bread is a slip of paper.

Tim reaches for it and tries to get his brain to take in the words on it.

**You lost a lot of blood, so don’t be an idiot and stay where you are.**

**If you can stomach it, you should eat and drink.**

**I won’t be long.**

Tim’s chest weirdly feels tight as he turns the paper over. Nothing’s written on the back, but he’s surprised that Jason even left him anything. He looks down to one of the bandages on his arms, and he knows that one, or maybe both, if Jason couldn’t get his vein, were from Jason giving him blood. Which Tim wasn’t expecting him to do, and he knows that Jason wouldn’t have been able to give him much, but that it would have helped, whatever he did give.

Tim shuffles forward on the couch, just as he hears the lock on the door click. He lifts his head and watches as Jason comes in and closes the door behind him. He’s holding a few bags, and the smell of the food hits Tim before Jason’s even been able to turn and face him.

“Hey, how’re you feeling?” Jason asks as he walks over to Tim. And it’s then that Tim notices the mess has been cleaned up. Carpets still wet from whatever Jason’s cleaned the blood out with, and the glass is gone. He turns his head a little, and the window is boarded up, and he’s sure the bathroom is spotless as well.

“Sorry, I’ll pay for everything,” Tim offers, his voice croaky and weak, but there. Jason waves him off and drops the bags on the table in front of Tim.

“Don’t worry about it, you almost died, you don’t owe me anything.”

“I owe you my life, Jay,” Tim states, swallowing thickly, finding his throat is far too dry. He reaches for the glass and cradles it between both hands as he lifts it to his lips and takes a sip. “Suppose you cleaned up the blood trail I left right up to your window too?”

Jason taps his fingers together and lets out a sigh. “You would have done the same for me.”

“Thank you, Jason,” Tim says. Jason shrugs and comes around the coffee table, sitting beside Tim, but not too close to him. He reaches for the plate with the bread on it, and Tim notices the bandage in his own inner elbow.

“Did you try eating yet?”

“No, just got up when you walked in,” Tim says, still clinging to the glass between both palms. “Whatever you’ve got smells good.”

“Yeah well, you’ve had a rough night, so I thought I’d get you some of your favourite.” Jason shrugs again, moving the plate out of the way before he starts pulling containers of fast food out and putting it on the table in front of them.

“You know that I like Thai?” Tim asks, glancing to Jason.

“I don’t know what you order though, so I had to guess and got a few options. Hopefully, you can stomach something.”

“Thank you, seriously Jason. It means a lot.” Tim murmurs, offering Jason a slight smile. Jason returns it before he gets to his feet.

“Like I said, you’d do the same for me,” Jason says over his shoulder as he walks into his kitchen. He rattles around in some cupboards and returns with two decent sized bowels and cutlery. Maybe Tim would have, but he doesn’t actually know Jason’s favourite food. He feels like a good burger would please him, but he doesn’t know if that’s Jason’s favourite.

“Do you even like Thai?” Tim asks and Jason snorts as he places the bowels on the table in front of them and sits down again.

“I wouldn’t have raced my ass down to the best Thai place I know and ordered a fucking weeks’ worth of food just before closing if I didn’t like it,” Jason assures him and Tim feels his chest tighten a little. It was such a nice act, so kind and thoughtful and Tim really doesn’t think that he can thank Jason enough.

He has to bite his tongue so he doesn’t verbally say it again because he’s sure that he will annoy Jason with it if he keeps doing it. So, he just shuffles forward again and looks at the containers that are there, at all the options for them. “This really is a lot,” He chuckles, feeling a little bad that Jason got so much. He really will have to repay him, even if Jason thinks he doesn’t have to.

“Don’t worry, not a bit of it will go to waste. Worst case scenario, I’ll call Roy over and tell him there’s food here for him. He’ll eat anything.” Jason shrugs and Tim smiles slightly. He was always glad to see Jason happy with someone else. He knew that Roy meant a lot to him, that they were close, even if Jason refused to say it. He was just happy that Jason had someone like that in his life. It was the least that he deserved.

“I’ll try to leave some for him in that case,” Tim says with a slight lilt to his voice that leans toward teasing. He sees the way that Jason’s mouth twitches up into a smile and smiles to himself. But the smile on Jason’s face doesn’t stay and he suddenly stops messing around in the container that he was in. Tim doesn’t stop getting a small portion of food for himself. A start, he’ll try and eat as much as he can.

“What happened?” He asks and Tim gives a low sigh. It was expected that Jason would ask eventually. And it was only fair that Tim tells Jason after he broke into his place and bled all over his apartment. It’s not like Jason had told him “ _You’re always welcome to crash at my place_ ”, no, they didn’t have that kind of relationship at all. It was honestly more likely that Jason was the one to leave Tim bleeding out. More likely, but Tim doubts he would have done something like this to him.

“I know you keep your toes in Bruce’s business, so I’m guessing you know about the drug dealers he’s been keeping everyone away from…” Tim cringes a little, he can’t even remember the name Bruce had given them right now because at the time he’d rolled his eyes and thought _they’re just like any other dealers_. If only he’d been right.

“You didn’t,” Jason sighs, lifting his hand to press his face into it. Tim turns his head away.

“I wasn’t scared, I thought Bruce was just being dramatic. They were moving a massive shipment and I had to stop them.”

“Those guys are no joke, Tim. I’ve seen up close what the fuck they will do to move their product, and I’ve seen the number of bodies they bury on the weekly,” Jason mutters, and Tim wants to ask just how involved he’s been, but he doesn’t know that he wants an answer to that question. After all, Jason has been involved with some bad shit, but he likes to think it’s always been with the intention to protect people.

“I didn’t think they’d… be that crazy. It was just so much gunfire and so many people were getting killed and I froze up. One of them stabbed me. I had to finish the job, took the rest of them out and called the cops. But I couldn’t call Bruce or Dick… they’d have torn into me, Bruce would have done everything he could have to keep me from going out again because I didn’t listen. I know I fucked up-”

“You could have died.” Jason cuts in and the tone of his voice has Tim’s blood running cold. He’s never heard Jason sound upset, hurt like this before. “You refused to call Bruce because you were ashamed, so you dragged your ass all the way here instead and just hoped I’d show up in time? If I had been a few more minutes out Tim, I don’t know if I would have been able to save you. Hell, if I wasn’t able to give you a blood transfusion you would have died. I don’t have the things that Bruce has. You… I… I had the thought that it was one of you trying to get into contact with me. I thought about ignoring it. If I had…”

“It’s not like I could have called you,”

“You could have called anyone else. Tim… why did you come to me? That choice could have killed you.” And he’s frantic now. Tim’s not sure what to think. It’s all new to him, seeing Jason like this. He’s not sure how he feels, honestly. He’s never seen Jason like this, he’s never heard that kind of fear in his voice, not even when he was bleeding out in his bathroom.

“Because I thought that you wouldn’t lecture me. Because I was scared, Jason. And I… I wanted to prove to myself that you do care, even if you don’t want to admit it. Because I wanted your help.” The admission is… a lot, so he’s not surprised that Jason goes dead silent. Or that his whole body deflates and shrinks into himself, or that he looks away from Tim and stays completely still like he’s not even breathing anymore. Tim sighs and plays with his own fingers.

“I came to you… because I didn’t want to go to anyone else. I came to you by choice. I’m stubborn, yes, but… if I didn’t think I’d make it here, if I didn’t think you’d show up… I wouldn’t have come to you. And… I guess I thought that… if you allowed me to die it would be because you didn’t care. So… there wouldn’t be a burden for you to carry.”

“That’s so fucking selfish.” Jason laughs, and it’s bitter and Tim doesn’t blame him for it. He looks away and sighs.

“I know.”

“You really thought I wouldn’t fucking care if you died here, in my home, in my arms?”

“No, I… I just didn’t know what to do, Jason. I… if I was going to die, I wanted to see you one last time.” He admits in a broken voice. His chest feels tight, and guilt weighs heavy on his shoulders. It’s how he feels though. It’s what he wanted, if it was going to be the end of him. He just wanted to know that Jason did care, that he tried, that he was there. He wanted to see him again, and know that the Jason he knew was still there.

The silence between them eats away at him, and he has no idea what to do or say. He’s laid his heart out, and he knows what he did was selfish, he never said it wasn’t, but facing death, the only thought was that he wanted to be close to Jason. There were reasons he didn’t want to go to Bruce or Dick, yes, but he wanted to go to Jason, that’s what he really wanted.

Jason moves, Tim hears him shift but he doesn’t react or move himself. He’d understand wholeheartedly if Jason told him to leave right now, if Jason hurt him for what he did, he’d understand anything really. He knows Jason is upset, and he doesn’t blame him. But he doesn’t expect Jason to move closer to him and grab his chin, turn his head and force him to look at him. Jason looks hurt, miserable, but mostly, he looks sorry. And Tim doesn’t know how to digest that.

“You’re an idiot, Drake. A fucking moron. But… I’m glad you did it.” Jason murmurs, his gaze falling to the space between them. Tim frowns and Jason’s shoulders shake as he laughs. It still sounds bitter, but now it’s different. “Because if you had died and I… I would have regretted how things were left between us. Because you’re right, I do care, I do. And I’m… I’m glad you trust me. But don’t ever, _ever_ do something this stupid ever again. If you want my attention you don’t have to fucking break into my place while you’re bleeding out, okay?”

And when Jason looks up at him, his eyes are filled with tears that he won’t allow to fall, and he’s laughing, but it’s not as bitter now. He’s relieved, a weight has lifted off his chest, and it makes Tim feel so much better. He offers Jason a weak smile and nods.

“Maybe I could get your phone number then?” He asks, his own eyes watering and when he laughs, it’s morphed by a slight sob. Jason shakes his head and rolls his eyes, but he reaches out and pulls Tim into him, hugging him tight as he presses his face into Tim’s neck. Tim clings to him, and finally, it’s like he can actually breathe again.

Jason was still in there, the person Tim knew was beneath that mask, beneath Red Hood. And he was just glad he could see him again, even if this was the only time it happened, he would be okay with that.


End file.
